Book Review: Always By My Side

Always By My Side by Susan Kerner

My Rating: 4 out of 5 Tear-filled Smiles

Recommends for readers of Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and Your Moon, My Moon: A Grandmother's Words to a Faraway Child by Patricia MacLachlan

Summary: Children share ways to remember their fathers in rhyming text.

Review: The story begins with a very young child looking out the window answering the unasked question, "Where's your daddy?" His answer is lyrical, "He's in me and around me, never far away."

The illustrations depict a vibrant range of children, both emotionally and ethnically. Each finds a way to see their fathers everyday in the nature and people who surround them. The book is a gentle approach to death. The final scene of the book shows the same little boy from the beginning sleeping next to a photo of his father. I love the continuity of ending with the same character and the sense of peace it creates.

Sensitive Readers Beware: This book may bring up lots of questions about death, it did with my 4-year-old. If you are not ready to breach this subject, you may want to save reading this book until that time comes.